Monday, January 28, 2013

So,
I was training in Bangkok earlier this year and we had attendees from
Singapore, Brunei, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Thailand in the room. It
was a great mix!

But
a funny thing happened that showed me the differences that we sometimes don’t
acknowledge exist.

We
were working through the usual company policies and practices that might
(inadvertently) encourage employee to resign.

For
example, some organisations require an employee to inform their supervisor if
they want to put in for an internal promotion. However, sometimes employees
don’t want their boss to know they’re dissatisfied, and it’s easier to resign
than to keep working for your boss if you don’t win that promotion.

One
of the training participants representing an Islamic bank thought for a bit
then he said ‘Well, I think the policy we have that our employees can’t marry
each other, maybe that’s not helping recruitment and retention’.

You
think?!

That
policy may no doubt be right for a conservative business in a conservative
country, but they’ll have to accept higher turnover and maybe a different calibre
of candidate in the first place.

Have you become aware of policies or practicesinside your business that (inadvertently) might make employees
resign?